Chapter 60.2 Deserted Village 02
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Chen Yang moved his foot and looked down, “What is this? Dried animal corpse?” Under his foot was a black-brown piece resembling a dried-up carcass, likely a cat based on its shape.
The voodoo doll whispered in his ear, “A cat corpse without breath.”
“Hmm?” Chen Yang puzzled, and Du Shuo explained, “After a cat’s breath is absorbed and stored in its flesh, making it resemble a wind-dried food, the bones become brittle and break into a fine powder while the skin remains intact when stepped on. This occurs when the moisture in the cat’s body has been completely drained, leaving only the skin and bones.”
Chen Yang used the tip of his foot to brush away the leaves, revealing two dried cat corpses underneath. “It seems like there’s something in the deserted village that specifically feeds on breaths. Breath-eating creatures are mostly mischievous spirit types, but it doesn’t rule out some malevolent ghosts that feed on breaths for cultivation.”
Du Shuo: “Let’s go. Those things will come out after dark.”
Chen Yang nodded, and the two continued forward. The voodoo doll led them to stop in front of a building distinct from all the previous turrets. It was also a turret, but the entrance was at the front, unlike the turrets they had seen before where the doors were on the sides. The main door was tightly locked, adorned with faded images of gods and ghosts, though still discernibly delicate and vibrant.
The door wouldn’t budge because a large crossbeam at the back secured it tightly. When pushed, the door remained motionless. The voodoo doll whispered in Chen Yang’s ear, “Cannot break the door.”
Chen Yang exchanged glances with Du Shuo and said, “I’ll go in first and take a look.”
Du Shuo: “Okay.”
Stepping backward, Chen Yang surveyed the walls and the adjacent large tree. Carvings depicting gods and spirits adorned the exterior walls, showing signs of slight fading but remaining intact. Stepping on a protruding section of the wall, he vaulted onto the tree trunk, balanced on a tree root, and gracefully landed on the roof. Making his way to the back of the door, he removed the crossbeam, swung the door open to allow Du Shuo entry, and swiftly secured it again with the crossbeam.
Inside, a small hall led to rooms on either side, with a central courtyard. The courtyard featured a well surrounded by fallen leaves, and adjacent to it was a wooden bucket. Outside, a large tree cast its branches over the courtyard, creating a shadowy atmosphere even with the sky visible above.
Beyond the courtyard was a hall with several tables. At the back, there was a large incense burner on the last row of tables, accompanied by several small incense burners. The incense burners held many candles, some extinguished, others broken in half, covered in spiderwebs. Behind the incense burner stood a grand altar, densely filled with numerous memorial tablets from top to bottom.
In the darkness, suddenly encountering countless memorial tablets felt as if numerous spirits were glaring at them. An ordinary person would likely be frightened to scream. Chen Yang said, “This is the ancestral hall.”
The desks, incense burners, altar, and countless memorial tablets once again confirmed that this place was the ancestral hall of the deserted village. An ancestral hall was where immortals were worshiped, which explained its distance from the village entrance and the absence of turret buildings nearby. After all, it wasn’t suitable to reside close to a place dedicated to ancestral masters.
Chen Yang walked towards the front, intending to inspect the tablets. However, upon seeing an open space behind the altar, he decided to check and found four dark coffins.
Just as he was about to open one of the coffins, Du Shuo grasped his hand and said, “Let me do it.” Opening the coffin lid, he explained, “These coffins have been here for who knows how long. If there are corpses inside, it could emit corpse energy.”
Inhaling corpse energy would make most people seriously ill, and even a celestial master, without precautionary measures, would suffer from it. After all, corpse energy was both poisonous and Yin, which was harmful to the body.
After pushing off the coffin lid, a stench of decaying wood and rotten flesh rushed out. Chen Yang covered his nose with one hand and Du Shuo’s with the other, muttering, “So foul.” Glancing inside the coffin, he noted, “There’s a corpse, decomposed to the bones, darkened in color. The head seems… bitten off halfway. The legs too, one leg is entirely missing up to the hip area. Judging by the recent style of his clothes, he must have mistakenly entered the deserted village and died.”
Seeing Chen Yang holding his nose while trying to examine the corpse, Du Shuo stood behind him and covered his nose, also inspecting the corpse. He commented, “Looks like he was eaten halfway.” Only a small portion of the face remained, with facial muscles completely decayed, and corpse insects crawling around, even emerging from the eye sockets.
The empty eye sockets of the corpse appeared hollow. Chen Yang, still covering his nose, continued to investigate the body. “Looks like the eyes were dug out. But from the remaining half of the body’s hand posture, it’s evident that when half of his body was eaten, he was still alive.”
Living flesh gnawed away, leaving the other half tense and in an odd position. Chen Yang remarked, “He probably wasn’t eaten here. It must have happened outside… where there are fallen leaves.” He noticed plenty of leaves on the body. Since the coffin was behind the altar, and leaves couldn’t enter, the only possibility was that leaves were brought in from outside. “Although it’s also possible that whatever ate him had many leaves on it. But I don’t understand why they put him in a coffin… as if storing food?”
Du Shuo: “Doesn’t seem like it. The body was probably dragged in from outside and temporarily placed in the coffin. Since those things eat living people, it indicates they don’t consume rotten flesh, so there’s no need to store it.”
The ancestral hall used to be a place for ancestor worship and various ceremonies, including weddings, funerals, birthdays, and celebrations. Although in some regions, these halls might have ceased to host festive occasions, they continued to serve for funeral ceremonies. Consequently, coffins were commonly stored behind the altar for such purposes. Now, finding a decomposed body inside one of the coffins suggested that it wasn’t the work of some monsters in the abandoned village. Instead, someone else placed the body in the coffin.
Chen Yang turned to the doll and asked, “Did Chief Witch Yi make this?”
The doll shook its head. “Wawa cannot say.”
“Cannot say” didn’t mean “does not know.” Chen Yang suddenly remembered a passage from the “Book of Ghost Spells” that mentioned voodoo dolls. Voodoo dolls were profoundly loyal to their masters, stemming from either genuine loyalty or compelled loyalty. Regardless, loyalty was unavoidable during the crafting process.
The voodoo doll, born from Chief Witch Yi’s heartblood, was bound to her. Its sole task was to lead Chen Yang to find Chief Witch Yi, and it couldn’t disclose any information about her.
Understanding this, Chen Yang approached the question differently, “Was this the doing of the celestial masters who entered the deserted village?”
The voodoo doll nodded. “Yes.” Infused with Chief Witch Yi’s heartblood, it could sense memories related to Chief Witch Yi during intense emotional fluctuations.
“Who was the deceased? Killed by what?”
Voodoo doll: “A reckless person, don’t know.”
Chen Yang: “It seems Chief Witch Yi and the others still don’t know what’s haunting this place.”
Du Shuo’s gaze went beyond Chen Yang, focusing on the half of the body remaining in the coffin. Observing the bite marks, something seemed to trigger a memory, and his eyes turned slightly cold. Scared, the voodoo doll shivered, attempting to slip into Chen Yang’s pocket. Du Shuo’s cold eyes swept over, and it froze in place.
Du Shuo silently commanded it to ‘go back and stay put.’ The voodoo doll reluctantly climbed back onto Chen Yang’s shoulder, quietly shedding tears, feeling terrified of the companion beside Chen Yang. Poor Yangyang, he must have been bullied thoroughly.
“There are some speculations, but nothing is certain yet.” Suddenly, a calm and pleasant female voice came from behind. Chen Yang and Du Shuo turned to see a woman around twenty-seven or twenty-eight standing at the entrance of the hall.
She was wearing a tailored ethnic minority costume with a red and black short skirt, cloth shoes, and adorned with silver chains, bracelets, earrings, and a neck ring. Her appearance wasn’t exceptionally beautiful, but she exuded a unique charm and demeanor that made people overlook her looks and feel drawn to her. Expressionless and somewhat aloof, she called out, “Chen Yang?”
Chen Yang nodded, recognizing her. “Chief Witch Yi.”
Chief Witch Yi’s demeanor subtly softened, nodding towards Chen Yang. Her attitude seemed strange to Chen Yang, as if she didn’t recognize him and needed to confirm. However, they had met before during his initiation ceremony, with Chief Witch Yi serving as his Endorsing Master. They had also been in contact a few times afterward. It was unlikely for her not to recognize him.
Sensing Chen Yang’s confusion, Chief Witch Yi explained, “Something in the deserted village can mimic others. That thing previously impersonated you to lure me out.”
Chen Yang nodded. “Chief Witch Yi, are you not afraid that I might be another impersonation?”
Chief Witch Yi responded, “You have my voodoo doll, and…” She gestured toward Du Shuo, adding, “Director Du.”
Director Du also nodded in acknowledgment.
Chief Witch Yi commanded, “Wawa, come back.” However, the doll refused, clutching onto Chen Yang’s clothes and refusing to move. Chief Witch Yi frowned, displaying a serious and displeased expression, but the doll stubbornly resisted.
Chen Yang: “Let it stay on my shoulder. I don’t mind.”
Chief Witch Yi: “Voodoo dolls are difficult to control. If it’s not your own voodoo doll, it can easily generate curses, which might harm you.”
“I understand,” Chen Yang smiled and reassured, “Its curse won’t affect me. Don’t worry.”
Originally created as a cursed doll, the voodoo doll possessed some degree of curse power. Chen Yang, being a practitioner of the Ghost Dao, was knowledgeable about these matters. His lack of fear stemmed from the fact that the doll’s curse had no effect on him, as the power of a voodoo doll depended on its owner. By saying so, Chen Yang implied that his proficiency in the Ghost Dao now surpassed Chief Witch Yi’s.
Chief Witch Yi felt relieved and increasingly desired for Chen Yang to return to the Witch Tribe officially. This was crucial for the future leadership of the clan and to prevent its decline. She said, “Follow me.”
Chen Yang and Du Shuo followed her through an inconspicuous small door beside the ancestral hall. Outside was a narrow alley, allowing only one person to pass through. Overhead, dense vegetation blocked out the sun, but some light managed to filter through. After about four minutes, they arrived at a turret not entwined with vegetation. Chief Witch Yi knocked on the door, a distinct pattern of knocks.
The door opened from the inside, revealing a man around forty with a goatee. Seeing Chief Witch Yi and, behind her, Chen Yang and Du Shuo, he immediately smiled and greeted, “Director Du.”
Du Shuo nodded faintly, without responding. Both the man and Chief Witch Yi seemed accustomed to such situations. After they entered, the man locked the door behind them. Goatee introduced himself to Chen Yang, “I’m Liu Quanning, supervisor of the Beimiao Palace and also the president of the Guangdong Daoist Association.”
Chen Yang: “I’m Chen Yang, the manager of Dafu Branch Office.”
“I’ve heard of you, you have been solving many high-level cases at such a young age. A rare successor of the Ghost Dao. Chief Witch Yi always boasts about having a capable successor.” Liu Quanning stroked his goatee with a grin.
Chen Yang found Liu Quanning similar to Ma Shanfeng, not in appearance but in their smoothness. Chief Witch Yi interrupted their conversation, “Talk inside, don’t linger at the doorway.” As they entered the hall, she added to Chen Yang, “Take only thirty percent of what Liu Quanning says seriously. The rest is exaggeration.”
Liu Quanning: “I’m just embellishing, talking is an art. Don’t believe Chief Witch Yi’s words. Trust me, speaking well is more effective than carrying a gun and a baton.”
Chen Yang rubbed his nose and silently walked shoulder to shoulder with Du Shuo into the hall. With Du Shuo by his side, Liu Quanning restrained himself from making more audacious remarks.
In the hall, there were two celestial masters and nine ordinary people, including a baby. Chen Yang was surprised. “I thought only eight youths entered? Why are there nine people, including a baby?”
Chief Witch Yi: “Three of the eight youths died, two went missing, leaving three. The remaining six, including the baby, were on a bus that accidentally entered. Others got separated, their fate unknown.”
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